Celibacy

What would this critic think of the fiction here?

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/...tter&wpisrc=nl_ideas
 

It's simple to me. Superhumans have sex, and given their enhanced physical abilities, it would be creative, superhuman, and frequent.  They are superhumans, and that mean human inside. Just a better kind of human. As universal (and expansive) interest in human sexuality is, super-sex goes way further. How fun. 

So, this celibacy of the media is completely contrary to human nature, IMHO.

Yet you see the relative celibacy everywhere in mainstream comics, TV shows and movies. Superheroes don't have super-sex, especially of the steamy kind. Yet steamy love scenes are in most other movies and many shows. 

Worst of all, look at the handling of the last two Kryptonians in all the universe. A very healthy man and woman, who in any rational universe would have as many children as they could to keep their species alive. That's the ultimate highest calling of any sexual being -- survival of the species. It's hard-wired into our DNA. Yet instead, they risk letting their entire genome disappear because they are cousins??!!! The weakest excuse ever to keep sex out of a story.

Sadly, I suspect the heyday of super-sex in comics (such as it was) was the 90's. 

Shadar

wrote:

It's simple to me. Superhumans have sex, and given their enhanced physical abilities, it would be creative, superhuman, and frequent.  They are superhumans, and that mean human inside. Just a better kind of human. As universal (and expansive) interest in human sexuality is, super-sex goes way further. How fun. 

So, this celibacy of the media is completely contrary to human nature, IMHO.

Yet you see the relative celibacy everywhere in mainstream comics, TV shows and movies. Superheroes don't have super-sex, especially of the steamy kind. Yet steamy love scenes are in most other movies and many shows. 

Worst of all, look at the handling of the last two Kryptonians in all the universe. A very healthy man and woman, who in any rational universe would have as many children as they could to keep their species alive. That's the ultimate highest calling of any sexual being -- survival of the species. It's hard-wired into our DNA. Yet instead, they risk letting their entire genome disappear because they are cousins??!!! The weakest excuse ever to keep sex out of a story.

Sadly, I suspect the heyday of super-sex in comics (such as it was) was the 90's. 

Shadar

And yet some of the TV shows can get away with it, like in this scene from this past week's episode of the Flash with Chester accidentally walking in on Barry and Iris.


 

wrote:

wrote:

It's simple to me. Superhumans have sex, and given their enhanced physical abilities, it would be creative, superhuman, and frequent.  They are superhumans, and that mean human inside. Just a better kind of human. As universal (and expansive) interest in human sexuality is, super-sex goes way further. How fun. 

So, this celibacy of the media is completely contrary to human nature, IMHO.

Yet you see the relative celibacy everywhere in mainstream comics, TV shows and movies. Superheroes don't have super-sex, especially of the steamy kind. Yet steamy love scenes are in most other movies and many shows. 

Worst of all, look at the handling of the last two Kryptonians in all the universe. A very healthy man and woman, who in any rational universe would have as many children as they could to keep their species alive. That's the ultimate highest calling of any sexual being -- survival of the species. It's hard-wired into our DNA. Yet instead, they risk letting their entire genome disappear because they are cousins??!!! The weakest excuse ever to keep sex out of a story.

Sadly, I suspect the heyday of super-sex in comics (such as it was) was the 90's. 

Shadar

And yet some of the TV shows can get away with it, like in this scene from this past week's episode of the Flash with Chester accidentally walking in on Barry and Iris.

 

That's just the point. This is stereotyped embarrassed-teenager kind of suggestive sex. Nothing remotely graphic.

But when it doesn't involve superheroes, TV sometimes gives us some serious making-out and foreplay that the camera fades politely away from at the right moment. Sometimes full-on sex with enough clothing to keep it from getting an R rating.

But perhaps this is just a show aimed at kids. 

Shadar

wrote:

wrote:

Worst of all, look at the handling of the last two Kryptonians in all the universe. A very healthy man and woman, who in any rational universe would have as many children as they could to keep their species alive. That's the ultimate highest calling of any sexual being -- survival of the species. It's hard-wired into our DNA. Yet instead, they risk letting their entire genome disappear because they are cousins??!!! The weakest excuse ever to keep sex out of a story.

 

The weakest?! Even without mentioning the fact that sexual relationships between blood-raltive within four degrees of separation are illegal in many countries and frowned upon, there is the potential complication of endogamy. Even if Kal and Kara had some children, the only way to maintain a pure (I can't believe I had to use that word) strain of Kryptonian DNA would be for their children to have sex with each other, resulting in a fatal weakning of the gene-pool within a few generations.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to clean some images from my brain using bleach.

It might be icky, but the end of your species is pretty icky too.

It used to be common. More than 50% of marriages in southern Italy were between cousins in the last century. It's still 50% in Pakistan and some other places.

Cousin marriage remains legal in the European Union. Half of the states in the US still allow it, half do not.

Scientists say the risks are overrated and are equivalent in risk to a woman who is 40 years old having children. 

The main prohibition comes from the Catholic church in their four degrees of consanguinity restriction. Islam doesn't have any restrictions, but Hindus are prohibited. Protestant Christianity has no prohibition. The primary event that has reduced it in modern times is urbanization, where people have access to many more potential mates who are not related. Village life was very different. 

But I'm not trying to make a case for cousin marriage, which I find a bit icky too, other than to say it's more common than many think and not as risky as once believed. What I'm trying to make is the point that it's a small risk when comparing it to the loss of an entire intelligent species (Kryptonians).  

And while things would get difficult in subsequent generations for sure, a bunch of kids from Kal and Kara would buy time to find another suitable species to mate with, or the potential development of medical procedures to allow even Homo Sapien/Kryptonian children. (Although cross-species reproduction technically is hybridization.) 

Until then, keeping the Kryptonian blood line alive is a big deal. 

And if you want to REALLY get icky, how about gorilla/human: "in the 1920s, the Russian biologist Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov, a specialist in the field of artificial insemination and hybridization, attempted to ‘build a living super-warrior’ under the leadership of Stalin. The idea was to generate a pain- and cold-insensitive creature with superior strength to humans." Yikes!  Soviet Planet of the Apes.

Given the technology of the time, Ivanov failed, something I'm sure everyone (except maybe hair removal specialists) are very happy about. Ethical restrictions would prohibit an attempt to do that today. That's not to say reproductive science couldn't do it now. 

In comparison, Kryptonian/Human hybrids are a lot more fun to consider in speculative fiction. 

Shadar

Nothing to do with consanguinity but I came across a porn item that shows Power Girl getting it on with a guy -- and it's NOT a "peril" scenario; she's just hungry for dick. More than four million views shown, which I think is a lot more than the average "peril" video.